


Homme Libre, Toujours Tu Chériras La Mer

by Inrainbowz



Series: In Any Other World - Malec AU Collection [13]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pirate, Angst with a Happy Ending, Betrayal, Developing Relationship, Family Feels, Gen, M/M, Minor Violence, Pirates, Siblings, oh yeah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-06 03:15:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11591784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inrainbowz/pseuds/Inrainbowz
Summary: 16. Pirates AUOutlawed and hunted, Alec, Jace and Izzy end up on Magnus's pirate ship. What could possibly go wrong.





	Homme Libre, Toujours Tu Chériras La Mer

**Author's Note:**

> I know, okay. I know I have the King & Villager one to finish (I'm on it I swear) and my WIP and I promised other AUs and... I have no idea where this came from. Okay that's a lie I watched Black Sails and I'm diving back into One Piece as we speak so PIRATES. I had to.
> 
> Seems like I can't make short AUs anymore... I'm leaving for a few weeks so you won't hear about me till the end of august, I wanted to leave you with something! Hope you'll enjoy.
> 
> Thanks to NighChanger for the correction. Title from one of my fave poem from Charles Baudelaire, L'Homme et la Mer (Man and the Sea). "Free man, always you will cherish the sea!"

Alec had never pondered over his own death.

He'd wasted no small amount of sleep over his siblings', many times. Wondered how he could keep them safe, how he would go on if anything happened to them. He'd fantasized about Count Morgenstern's death, pictured himself slicing the man's throat open or sinking his blade into his heart.

But his own had never crossed his mind.

He'd stopped believing in God a long time ago, long before he was forced away from his home and truly abandoned by any deities that might exist. He remembered sitting in church bored out of his mind, remembered the simmering anger that grew more and more every Sunday in the gloomy building, the hatred and resentment at this invisible forces that dictated their lives, justified the worst atrocities, condemned people and absolved others of all sins with no rhyme or reason.

He remembered thinking that heaven seemed very grim, especially seeing what you were supposed to do, how you were supposed to live, in order to achieve it.

Then they became fugitives, hunted criminals, and he simply put God out of his mind.

The priest had come to visit him in his cell a few hours ago. He'd left in a hurry with a bleeding nose and a promise of eternal damnation.

Alec had assured him that he was well on his way to hell already.

But now that the hour of his execution was closing on him, he was forced to think about it for the first time. Death. Dying. Ceasing to exist, leaving this world and everything in it behind, never to return. He didn't know how that made him feel. He was numb, almost out of his body, unconcerned. He had already gave it all – his emotions seemed spent, like he didn't have any left.

Besides, as always, he was worrying about Izzy and Jace and Max, and nothing, no god or law and certainly not his death, could trump that.

.

"It’s not going to work.”

Had the situation been less sensitive than it was, Alec would have probably punched his brother in the face. But above all else they had to remain inconspicuous, unnoticed, and it wouldn’t do to start a brawl in the middle of the port. So he just glared at Jace with a murderous look that unfortunately, wasn’t very effective after years of use. Jace just stuck his tongue at him with a petulant "well, it's true."

God help him, he was going to murder him.

He was about to jump him, consequences be damned, when both he and Jace received a hard tackle on the back of their head that sent them slamming against the barrel they were hiding behind. Alec at least had the satisfaction to hear the dull thump of Jace’s forehead hitting hard wood.

"Stop it, both of you," Izzy hissed behind them, scary in her anger even crouched behind a barrel. "Do you want to get us all killed?"

The boys grumbled but didn't reply. She was right, now wasn't the time for petty arguments. They were playing their safety, their lives – they had to be careful.

"Look," Izzy said, pointing toward the sea with her chin, "that’s her."

They all focused on the ship that was just docking in the port. She was a beauty, small but fit, known for being faster than any ship of the marines and most of the commercial ones too. It was their way out, their salute, if only they played their cards right.

Alec turned to his siblings, brows furrowed in determination. "Okay, we'll do as planned. You go first."

"I don't like this plan."

Alec rolled his eyes. "Really Jace, I hadn't noticed. It's only the sixth time you've said it."

"I'll say it as long as it’s true, which means until it backfires and gets all three of us killed, or worse.”

"We have no choice," Izzy interjected before Alec could snarl an answer. "We're running out of time. It's too late for doubts. Let’s go."

Jace grimaced, clearly not done with speaking his mind, but Izzy didn't give him the time to argue more. She dragged him up and away from their hiding place and Alec had to watch them walk towards the quartermaster of the ship who was barking instructions for his men to empty the holds and deal with the cargo. Izzy was the one to approach him and do the talking, while Jace stood stoically by her side. From his venture point, he couldn't hear them, so he could only try to decipher their expressions and gestures and hope for the best.

They had decided to try to get a post on the ship separately, if only because they would soon be wanted by the town's authorities, and it wouldn't do to be seen boarding the ship together. That was also why Izzy, her short hair carefully hidden under her hat and large men's trousers and shirt hiding her forms, was to pose as a man. Women were allowed on the ships, especially on this kind, but they were still less common, and thus more noticeable.

They had also assumed that three people at once would be harder to swallow for the quartermaster, whereas if two where recruited, maybe one more later during the day would pass easily. Of course, the order in which they were trying this was no chance. If at least it worked for Izzy and Jace, they would be able to flee the island safely. Alec came after, always had and always would. It didn't matter if they didn't take him. His siblings would be safe. That's all that mattered.

Handshakes were exchanged and Alec saw with relief Jace and Izzy being put to work on unloading the ship. They had chosen this particular one in part because word in town was that they had suffered through a terrible storm and lost several men in the process, and they were in need of new hands on deck. Alec would try his luck in the afternoon, before they were to set sail again.

.

Alec was making new ropes.

That's all he seemed to be doing lately. Making ropes. He couldn’t help but see it as some sort of punishment from Raphael. The quartermaster seemed angry at him for some reason, and yes, Alec was studiously ignoring the fact the it was probably due to the man walking in on him and the captain, in his cabin. Raphael should have learned how to knock by now. He brought it on himself.

Just as Alec brought rope duty on himself by flirting with Magnus.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Alec raised his head from his rope and had to blink a few times to bring the world back into focus.

"Leave me alone Jimmy," he shot back angrily. Why was he looking for trouble again? Why was this idiot unable to jut mind his own business.

"Not until you've answered me. What the hell are you doing with the captain?"

Alec wished, not for the first time, that he had the ability to kill with a single glare.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he answered casually, attempting to go back to his work. Jimmy wasn't done thought. He took a step forward and shoved Alec angrily, upsetting the careful balance he had on the small upturned bucket he was sitting on.

"Don't fucking lie to me asshole!" Jimmy shouted. Alec jumped on his feet, ready for a fight, but before it could escalate, Isaac materialized behind Jimmy to smack him on the back of his head.

"What the hell is on with you? Go back to your fucking post!" he demanded. The blond man glared at them both but did as he was told. Alec exchanged a meaningful look with Isaac, before the man turned to send all whose attention had been drawn to the altercation back to their duties.

Alec raised his head long enough to cross gazes with Magnus, standing on the higher bridge and watching him carefully. The captain raised an interrogative eyebrow – Alec ignored him and went back to his rope with renewed vigor, tying each knot as if it was around Jimmy's neck.

.

"Do you want to get all three of us killed?" Alec snarled as soon as Jace joined Izzy and him below deck.

"I could ask you the same question," his brother shot back. Their anger was downplayed by the need to stay as quiet as possible. It wouldn't do for someone else from the crew to find Jimmy, Isaac and Alan holding an angry council for no reason.

"I thought _I_ was supposed to be the master of stupid decisions", Jace said, clearly not over an insult Alec had hurled at him years ago.

"Don't worry, you still are."

"Well you’re the one fucking around with the captain so excuse me if it feels like you’re trying to rob me of my title."

Alec turned toward Izzy for support, but her expression was closed off, accusing. He sighed heavily, all fight leaving him at once.

"I know, ok? I know it's a terrible idea, I know I shouldn't, I just..."

"If you say I can't help it or anything along those lines, I will punch you."

He didn't know what else to say, so he said nothing. That didn't calm Jace down one bit.

"I can't believe you're putting your dick before our fucking survival," and okay, that was fucking unfair. Alec's temper was rising dangerously and he saw from the corner of his eyes that Izzy was ready to jump in between them any second.

"You're one to talk considering the number of times your dick put us in trouble. Besides, it's not...”

"What, not about that? What is it then, Alec? Love?"

Alec opened his mouth to protest, but nothing came to mind. A few seconds of hesitation were enough for Jace and Izzy.

"Oh for fuck's sake, it is."

Alec wouldn't have talked about love per se, but he certainly wouldn't have reduced it to sex either. It would have been better, really. They didn't need any more complications to an already very complicated situation.

He was so tired all of the sudden, so fucking tired of everything. He was hit with a sudden and absurd fit of homesickness. He didn't miss his hometown or house, not really, but he missed home. The idea, the concept. A place of his own, safety, peace, a shelter for his family, somewhere they could be free. He hated the sea, hated this ship and all its inhabitants. Even the captain – especially the captain.

"I'm sorry."

His defeated stance alarmed his siblings. The next moment they were both by his sides, a comforting presence to his troubled mind.

"I’m sorry, I don't... I don't know what I'm doing. But we're stranded on that fucking sea and we're so far away from home, and here... I can..."

He didn't go on, but he didn't have to. They knew all too well, even if he'd never say it in so many words. It was just another sin to add to the long list of crimes that would see him hanged someday. The pirates were an awful bunch but at least they lived by their contradictions, and they didn't frown at any kind of sins, even this one.

Male sailors got married at sea for Christ’s sake.

"It's not wise at all, Alec," Izzy said gently. He shrugged helplessly – as if he didn't know that.

.

He had taken to avoiding Jace as much as possible, because his accusing glare was beginning to get to his nerves. He was well aware that getting involved with the captain of the ship they had boarded under false pretenses was the most terrible idea, even worse than, well, boarding the ship in the first place.

The first time Alec had caught Magnus's gaze, it was after their first boarding of a merchant ship.

Until then they had just been common sailors on the ship, working their ass off to keep the damn thing afloat and, more importantly, to hide how little they knew about actually sailing anything. The quartermaster, Raphael, had probably figured it out, but he had a soft spot for Izzy – Isaac, as it was – so he let it slide for her and his companion "Jimmy". Alec could barely tell the front of the ship from the back, but he was a quick learner, and had a lot of strength, which was enough to earn one's place on a short of hand ship.

Alec had something else though. His siblings were young when the disgrace of their family had put an abrupt end to their education, and knocked them back from noble's children to servants in their own home, so they had only received basic training. But Alec already had several years in the militia behind him, and the Count had seen fit to keep him there, as a simple soldier, while his siblings slaved away under his command.

So of course for them it was nothing surprising, when Alec boarded the merchant ship on the front line with the others. But their fellow sailors where in for quite a surprise.

Alec would never admit, to anyone, under any circumstances, that he enjoyed this. The fight, the risk, the mindless violence. Training with the militia had been a salvaging outlet to his anger, his rage, his powerlessness to the injustice done to his family. He had been reprimanded several times for his savagery and too much eagerness, but of course there had been no such comment from the pirates. When he had boarded back onto their ship, panting, feral, and covered in blood, he had only gained a new approval and respect from the crew.

And the attention of his captain.

Alec would never forget that very first look. The heat, the desire, wild, untamed, out there for anyone to see. Had they been on land, Alec was sure that look only could have had them arrested for indecency. He would have looked away, ignored it as he always had, even at the barracks where it was common place. But here at sea, Alec felt free, and strong, for the first time in his life. So he had stared right back.

Two weeks and two successful attacks later, he had joined Magnus in his cabin.

.

Pirates were a wild bunch and they didn’t trust easily. Izzy would have gone as far as to say they didn’t trust at all, they just hold back their doubts and mistrust for the sake of running their ship and business.

Despite how easily Magnus had taken to Alec, he was no exception to that. Raphael was the worst though, always staring down at everyone in general and the newest recruits in particular, silently judging everyone. 

He despised Alec but it was nothing compared to the animosity he had towards Jace. They head-butted constantly, and Jace was doing a very good job at convincing his siblings that he was just trying to get himself kicked out of the crew.

Out of the three of them he had been the least on board with the plan.

He wanted them to hide on land, to change countries, go very far away and never come back. To take Max with them and start over somewhere. But there was a finality in this plan that Alec was convinced they would never achieve. Izzy hadn’t known what to think, so the decision was Alec’s as always. He couldn’t have them spend the rest of their lives watching their backs, being tracked, outlawed. At least with piracy they knew where the threat was coming from. But most importantly, they could come back, eventually.

Izzy knew that’s what her older brother was hoping for. Maybe someone would take action against the Count, maybe the royal authorities would finally round him up. Maybe Alec would go back one day and simply kill the man and his entire court, burn the whole town down and escape with his siblings. Then, they would really be free.

“Could you be any slower Jimmy?”

“Give me a fucking break!”

That was, if Jace didn’t get killed by Raphael first.

She left her fellow crewmen to run the sail down and made her way over to the pair to try and calm things down before they started fighting. Izzy and Jace had been hired together, so she had legitimacy in cleaning up his messes. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw Alec trying to reign in his temper. He wasn’t supposed to have anything to do with them, and it was at least amusing to her to see him resisting the urge to come put Jace back in his place himself.

“Is he stirring trouble again?” she asked casually with a drawl she had taken to use to make her voice sound more masculine. Raphael nodded but some of his anger faded away – he liked her well enough.

“Lagging, as always. I’ve rarely seen a less effective sailor.”

“He’s going to put more heart into it. Right Jimmy?”

Years of living under careful watch meant she didn’t need words to communicate with her brothers, and she got his reluctant approval even if nothing showed on his face.

“That’s settled then.”

She had only walked a couple of steps away when she heard a cracking noise, a warning, and a cry of pain.

.

“If Jimmy hadn’t pushed you out of the way, you’d probably be dead by now Raf.”

“Instead he’s the idiot with a concussion and a broken arm. Really brilliant of him.”

“Just be grateful.”

They had never thought about a situation like this when they had crafted their lies. Jace was being tended to by Catarina, the ship’s doctor, and Alec had to lurk out of the cabin like a creep because he couldn’t justify his presence by his side. He had to agree with Raphael on this – Jace was a bloody idiot. He had heard the rope snap and seen the board falling, and of course his instinct had been to put Raphael out of harm’s way. He was fucking noble like that. What did he care if the quartermaster lived or died? He didn’t, but he was principled. A true hero, deep down, a true good man, in every sense of the word.

With Jace’s angry temperament compared to his own ever calm demeanor, anyone would assume that Jace was the crooked one, but he was the one with a conscience. He was the noble one.

He had saved Raphael, where Alec was hoping he had stayed out of trouble and just let him die.

The door opened and Alec had just the time to grab a broom and pretend he was doing something productive, not blatantly eavesdropping. Raphael came out of the cabin, looking very sour. “Is he alright?” Alec asked with what he hoped was casual disinterest. Raphael cast him an odd look but answered, “he’ll be sore for weeks, but yeah, he’s alright.”

Alec nodded absentmindedly, and Raphael walked away.

Once, when Alec was sixteen, a maid from the manor had come to the casern to say that Jace had had a brawl with Sebastian that had gone out of hand when the man’s friends had decided to teach Jace a lesson.

They had beaten him so hard that for the next few days they hadn’t be sure he would pull through. But Alec was on duty. So he had stayed put.

He hadn’t moved, as the girl cried next to where he was stationed, as she came back several times to update him on his brother’s condition. At the time Valentine was watching their every move, waiting for the slightest misstep to take him out of the picture. There was nothing he could do to help as Jace healed, so he had stayed put.

It didn’t matter that he couldn’t sleep, that he made himself sick with worry. What mattered was their survival. They had to pull through, had to go on. And they would, they would. Jace would be fine and they would survive. They had to.

.

“What is happening?”

Alec shrugged, as clueless as Izzy as to why the Captain had required them to gather round on the bridge in the middle of the day. Jace was the only one missing – he was still bed ridden after his encounter with a falling wooden beam. Alec hadn’t seen him but Izzy assured him he was fine and he would recover quickly. Which would be for the best – he was staying in the Captain’s cabin, it being the only place on the ship suited to an injured man, and that meant Alec was banned from there for the time being. He should have felt bad for blaming Jace for his lack of sex life. He did, a bit. But Jace would be fine. He’d seen much worse.

Magnus came to stand in the middle of the crew. His face was carefully blank but Alec could see anger, rage, hidden behind his easy smile and relaxed posture. He was holding a rope, in his hand. A severed rope.

“What is happening?” Izzy whispered again by his side. She was confused and worried, which was second nature for her as soon as a man showed any sign of anger. They were all a threat to her, and passing as a man didn’t make her feel any safer on that matter. Alec didn’t answer. He had guessed - he wasn’t as bothered by it as he should have – and she would too soon enough. He’d had had his doubts anyway. And if Magnus was confronting them now, he was past doubts.

He didn’t expect Magnus to make a speech, to keep them waiting. As much as the man loved a good audience, when it came to authority and power he was deadly straight on. “Your quartermaster almost died because of this,” was all he said, holding up the rope, before drawing his gun and shooting one of the gunmen in the heart.

There was a collective gasp. Magnus immediately turned his gaze toward Alec, who was the only one not to flinch, not to recoil in surprise. “This is how traitors and liars are dealt with here,” he said, and he wasn’t talking to Alec, because he didn’t have a clue, and yet Alec shivered, both with fear and arousal.

It was a wonder, how easily they all accepted it. The faith they had in their captain. The man’s corpse was thrown in the sea without ceremony, being undeserving of a proper funeral, and they all went back to their business as if nothing had happened. Apart from a building anger at the traitor, that would probably result in a rowdy evening full of alcohol and fighting, it was as if nothing had happened. The man had betrayed them, it was as if he had never existed.

When he asked Magnus later, he simply admitted to having confronted the man beforehand. He had claimed he had a grudge against Raphael but Magnus thought it more likely that he had been paid by another crew or the marines to screw up with the ship. It had happened before – many were those who wanted to see Magnus’s ship at the bottom of the sea, with her crew and captain. It didn’t matter either way.

“Does it bother you?” Magnus had asked, lips close to lips, hands wandering.

“No. Traitors have to be punished.”

Magnus had looked pleased. In that moment there was no doubt in Alec’s mind, that he too would have to pay for his actions, eventually.

.

In the end it was that simple, with men, Izzy thought as she watched Jace and Raphael talk by the mast. They weren’t friends, far from it, but Jace was finally up and about and even if reluctant, Raphael had sought him out. To show gratitude maybe, to bury the hatchet.

They were getting used to this life.

She couldn’t help but be worried about this – it was a bad thing. This life, these times, none of it was real, none of it was meant to last. This wasn’t their place, and sooner or later they would have to disappear, leave all this behind and hope it wouldn’t follow.

But she could see her brothers settling in, could feel herself getting attached to the ship and its crew, and it was a very bad thing.

“You seem troubled.”

The voice startled her out of her gloomy thoughts, to the amusement of the newcomer. Clary came to sit next to her on the rail.

“I’m just dreaming,” Izzy eluded. Clary made her uncomfortable. Half the time she was convinced the girl knew about her secret. The other half, she was sure Clary was flirting with her.

Both were all kinds of bad. And the fact that Clary was a beauty didn’t help, at all.

Under different circumstances, they would have become friends easily, but Izzy couldn’t forget that she was a man in Clary’s eyes, at least in theory. So they weren’t friends. She felt like they couldn’t.

“About what?”

Their thighs were pressed together. Clary had her head tilted to the side, her face brightened by a light smile. It was telling how confident she was about her role on the ship, to be able to flirt so openly without fearing the other’s eyes and judgment. Izzy had thought a pirate ship would be hell for a woman. It probably was if they weren’t strong enough, but Clary and the few others were fearless, wild, untouchable.

Izzy was terribly envious of them.

“How do you like the pirate life then?” Clary asked after a short silence. There was a smile in her voice, but a serious question too, and Izzy found herself really pondering.

“I can’t say life at sea is ideal, for me. I’ll never get used to sleeping off the ground and that constant rocking. As for the piracy itself… I don’t know. I don’t really care. I’m… grateful, for being here. Compared to what I left behind, it’s a blessing.”

“I know what you mean. It’s the same for me, for a lot of us. Piracy is the best we could have hoped for.”

“In my case it’s also the only possibility. I can never go back.”

She was more angry than sad, but Clary had to feel the longing. She put her hand over Izzy’s, and the sympathy and compassion in her eyes was too much – Izzy had to look away.

“What did you run away from?”

Izzy thought carefully about what she could disclose to her crewmate. “A life of slavery. Me and my family, we were to serve a house, forever, and… it was a bad place. It cost us much to escape.”

Clary was openly curious but she refrained from asking, and that prompted Izzy to say even more. It felt good to share that story – no one knew, apart from them.

“A guard tried to… he attacked me. My brother killed him.”

She had corrected herself just in time. As a man, it was less believable that a guard would assault her, even if of course it wasn’t unheard of. “Me and my siblings, we ran away. Some guards tried to stop us. We came out on top.”

Such a concise summary to such a dreadful night. In a few hours their whole life had been turned upside down, again. They didn’t have the time to pack anything, to prepare, to think for just a minute about what they were going to do, where they were going to go. It had been chaos. Chaos and anger and death.

Sometimes she wasn’t convinced they had really made it out. 

“What about you?” she asked abruptly, in an attempt to pull herself out of her memories. She felt Clary tense by her side, but it was a truth for a truth, so she started talking. “I was born as a maid. My mother was a maid and her mother before her, and her mother’s mother. God knows how many generations of unwedded maids there were, tied by the bastard of their master they gave birth to in the house. One day, I was thirteen years old, I saw for the first time hunger for me in a man’s eyes, desire, lust. I saw it like I was living it, I saw my life as it was going to unfold. I would  be abused by my master or his friends until one of them got me pregnant, and I’d have a child who would never be his own person, who’d be property of the house like I was. I ran away that very night.”

“You were thirteen,” Izzy deadpanned, for lack of a better answer. Despite her pain, Clary’s face as hard as steel.

“All I did to survive, at least I did on my own terms. I first boarded a pirate ship when I was sixteen, and I never looked back.”

Clary was right, it was probably the same for the rest of them. There had been a time where she had had such a thing as a conscience, a moral code, values of humanism, justice and equality. But all of that had been stolen from them, and what good did a sense of honor do when your life was picked apart by some unknown forces you could do nothing against, what good was moral and compassion when you were abandoned by gods and men, struck lower than nothing, at the mercy of the entire world?

None of them were sorry for the life they lived. At the very least they were at peace with themselves.

“Where is he now? Your brother.”

Maybe it was true. Maybe they would never go back.

“We were separated – I don’t know.” It was true for one of her brothers, at least.

There was no particular sign, no warning, no change in the conversation that meant the air had to be charged suddenly. But when Izzy turned back toward Clary her warm brown eyes were fixated on her and they were close, very close. The sea had calmed down during their conversation, they were suspended over the void, floating above the earth.

Clary leaned in.

Izzy jerked back, lost her balance and fell off the rail into the water.

By the time they had pulled her back Clary was nowhere to be seen. Izzy felt awful, but it was for the best. Clary thought she was a man, she couldn’t deceive her like that.

The boys made fun of her and she said nothing.

Maybe they would go back. She didn’t know.

She didn’t know a damn thing.

.

The sadder Magnus’s stories were, the more likely they were to be true. Only his worst tales were actually drawn from experience. The death of his best friend Ragnor at the hand of the marines, his family trying to kill him because they thought he was the devil’s spawn or something, his multiple tragic misadventures in love, all of that was true.

At some point Magnus had decided to make things up so that he wouldn’t be catalogued as a fucking walking tragedy. Also to stop killing the mood at parties.

He pondered all that as he watched Allan go about his day on the boat. Now that was a tragedy just waiting to happen.

Magnus didn’t get lucky in love, ever. And he could tell, of course he could, that the man was hiding something, that he wasn’t truthful. Magus was the successful captain of a well-known pirate ship, he didn’t miss that sort of thing.

Raphael had noticed too, of course, and of course he’d warn Magnus, and of course Magnus had ignored him. Raphael didn’t understand why. He thought his friend and mentor just had suicidal tendencies, or at least a masochist thread, for being so unwilling to protect himself and his heart.

Raphael didn’t understand. Allan rose his head to cast a quick glance towards the bar and… there it was. That was the reason.

He always sought him out on the ship. Every so often he would sweep his gaze across the bridge, just to see if they could exchange a glance, a smile, a nod, anything. Whatever it was that Allan was hiding, for once Magnus didn’t consider it a threat to his own person. No matter what Allan was lying about, he wasn’t lying about that – that look, that smile, it couldn’t be faked, couldn’t be nothing.

Magnus hoped this would be enough to comfort him when the man would be gone. Or maybe, even better, that he’d change his mind and simply stay.

.

They feasted by a campfire on a deserted beach, singing and dancing until morning and then having to sleep it off for an entire day before being able to take the sea again.

They sparred endlessly with the members of the crew, playful but violent nonetheless, making Catarina angry that she had to take care of split lips and friendly knife cuts more often than actual battle wounds.

They took care of the navigator’s apprentice as he faded away from an unknown disease that spent all his forces in just a few days. They gave him a proper farewell and mourned him as a brother even if they barely knew him.

They pillaged and killed on rich merchant’s ships, came to like the fear in those people’s eyes when they recognized who they were up against, came to revel being on top of those people they had once been a part of, who had rejected them, cast them out and made their life hell.

Allan, Jimmy, and Isaac, they became a part of it all. The life, the crew, the whispers around town, the fear and wonder.

Alec, Jace, and Izzy, they started to think there was nothing more to life.

.

Here at sea, away from civilization, from anything they knew, it was easy to forget what exactly they were doing on the ship, what they were running from. Sometimes they would run against a marine ship coming from Port Alicante and his siblings and him would make themselves scarce, afraid of being recognized. It was probably wrong of them, but they were starting to get used to this life. Life at sea was hard, unforgiving, but they lived on their own term. They didn’t have to take any offenses silently, they could fight back, they were allowed. It was a wonderful feeling.

Lying naked on the Captain’s bed, Alec could almost believe it, believe it all. He really was just a nobody, a farm boy running away from the misery of home. He had no secrets to hide, no threat on his head, no ghost in his past.

“Allan, move your lazy ass from that bed, you have work to do.”

Up until Magnus would use that name. Izzy had said it was wiser to use a name close to their own, so that they would have less trouble answering to it. It was close, but not close enough. He couldn’t tell Magnus not to use his name, couldn’t justify it, so he suffered through it. A small price to pay, all things considered.

“Give me a minute, I need to recover.”

“Young as you are? If I’m up already surely you should be too.”

Alec chuckled. He wanted to say something about their roles not demanding the same physical involvement, but it wasn’t worth the reflection. Beside, he really did have to go back to his post. They weren’t showing anything openly but they weren’t very subtle either, and if his siblings didn’t like it, it was nothing compared to what Raphael had to say on the matter. Not that Alec had heard anything – the quartermaster was a quiet one, and never complained aloud to him. But he didn’t hesitate to punish him by giving him the worst task possible, and according to Magnus he complained to his captain, copiously.

“I’m coming, old man.”

Magnus had ten years on him tops but he liked to pretend he was much older – and wiser. He was a fantastic storyteller, having a lifetime of stories to share that would make him at least a hundred years old if they were all true. Jace thought it made him look cocky and self-involved – Alec just found it funny. He hadn’t laugh much in his life, and Magnus was never trying to convince anyone that his stories were true. Alec thought some had to be, but he didn’t care much which ones. He was a liar too – he couldn’t begrudge Magnus his privacy, or sensationalism.

Magnus was already back into his fine clothes, his amazing long coat and his boots, his shining shirt. Alec had seen lords and nobles with less apparat than him. He rose from the bed, still stark naked, and reveled in the hungry look Magnus cast upon him as he gathered his own clothes, scattered around the room. He knew Magnus wouldn’t resist kissing him one last time before exiting the cabin and… there it was.

Alec could get used to this.

As always he took a look at the maps spread on Magnus’s table. He liked to know where they were heading and the Captain as well as his quartermaster were usually pretty quiet on the subject.  It amazed Alec how blindly the crew followed them. They seemed unconcerned about where they were going and why. They did as they were told no questions asked.

Maybe it would come to him in time. For now, he liked to know.

He had often been told that he would come to regret being too curious.

When Izzy came to him a couple of hours later, she immediately noticed his expression.

“What is it?”

He did his best to hide his worry. “We’re heading back to Port-Alicante”.

.

“Isaac! Where are you going?”

Izzy hid her sudden panic under a detached expression and turned around to see Raphael looking at her expectantly from the deck. He didn’t look angry or disapproving though, just curious.

“Well, it’s been month since we had that much time on land. I have some coins to spend.”

“Oh really? Do you mind some company?”

Izzy liked Raphael. She really did. Compared to all the idiots on board, he was a shining beacon of intelligence and good sense, with a clever mouth and an impressive talent for sarcasm. He wasn’t hard on the eye either.

But she had to escape the crew, and she couldn’t indulge in a drink, or anything else, just right now. She said the first thing that came to her mind. “Sorry, I’m out to look for… a specific kind of company, actually. Unless you want to join?”

She thought he would recoil in disgust but he just looked terribly disappointed. He stared down at her with the expression he had whenever the crew started to list all the things they would do once back on land, a list that always started with hitting the brothels. Until then he’d never looked at her like that.

Izzy was in dire need of the company of a woman. A woman that would know she was one too.

“You’re alright?” she couldn’t help asking, wondering what she’d said that was so terrible. He shook his head.

“It’s nothing, I just thought you were…”

She suddenly regretted choosing that particular lie. She had an inkling as to what made Raphael different from the other men, and she had just lost him as an ally because of it.

She didn’t have time to deal with it though. She had a meeting to go to.

.

“Izzy!”

“Shhhh.”

Her admonishment cut Aline short and she aborted the hug she was going to give to her cousin. Izzy felt guilty, but their secret was primordial. No one could know who they were, especially here. They had arrived the day before in New Port, a little town a few miles away from Port Alicante. The little city looked unassuming, calm, but it hid the whole of the black market on this side of the coast. Pirates had the habit of dropping anchor here, sell their most dubious products, and go discretely by land to Port Alicante, to sell the rest. A day was more than enough to send a note to the main city, asking Aline to come meet her in here.

“Sorry, we have to be discreet. I go by Isaac now. Let’s have a drink, yeah?”

Aline nodded curtly and followed her cousin to the tavern attached to the brothel. Better for the crew to actually see her where she had said she would be, doing what she had said she would be doing.

“I’m so happy to see you,” Izzy whispered once they were seated with two pints in a secluded corner. Aline smiles back at her, but she looked tensed, distant.

“Is everything okay? What news of the city? How is Max?”

If she was honest with herself, Izzy had to admit the last question was the only one she really cared about. They had left Max in Aline and Helen’s care, trusting them to keep the boy far away from the Count and the ruins of their family name. They had tried to write to the boy and his caretakers as often as they could, every time they were on shore somewhere, but he couldn’t write back. She was eager to hear about him.

Except Aline lost her smile immediately. She looked down and away, started fidgeting, and any sense of excitement left Izzy, only to be replaced by a sense of ominous dread.

“Aline. What happened.”

The girl’s eyes were filling with tears, and she was losing her breath. She looked scared, and, now that Izzy was getting a good look of her, terribly tired. She reached across the table to take her hands. Aline’s grip was deadly.

“They came without a warning. There was nothing we could do. They threatened to burn down the house, to take the other children… We couldn’t do anything Izzy, I’m so sorry…”

“Who came? Aline, I don’t understand…”

“Max’s been taken to prison.”

.

Alec and Magnus were having dinner in the cabin.

Well, it was more a game than it was a dinner. The ship was empty, it was only the two of them, sitting far too close for decency and enjoying a good meal and light touches slowly building up to something else. It would come later though – they had time to indulge for once, and Magnus was a great indulger.

Someone knocked on the door and Alec thought Magnus was going to break the glass he had in his hand.

He got up, hoping against all hope it was just one of those idiots back to ask an advance on their next payment already. Instead he opened the door to find Izzy out of breath and disheveled, panting against the doorframe.

“Huh, Isaac? Is there a problem?”

“I need to talk to you.”

Alec cast a look to Magnus who raised an expectant eyebrow. He was also unbuttoning his shirt. Alec turned back to his sister abruptly.

“Now is really not a good time, maybe later?”

“Allan. I need to talk to you right now.”

Alec knew her well, he could read her like an open book, he was in tune with her emotions and feelings. So he gave Magnus an apologetic smile, mouthed “I’ll be right back” to him, and followed her outside.

“I hope it’s important ‘cause…”

“Max is in prison waiting to be executed.”

Such strange things they could be, words, talking. It was a combination, some sounds uttered one after the other, it could be nothing special, or it could tilt the whole world on its axis. Gone was Magnus from his mind, gone were his plans for the evening, gone was everything except the few words Izzy had just uttered.

“They raided Aline and Helen’s house… They said if they couldn’t have us then… If we are declared dead they can charge him for our crimes. It’s the law. They can do that Alec. It’s the law. And he’s in jail right now. Max is in jail.”

She wasn’t crying – she had learned not too – but she could as well have been for Alec. This right there was his worst nightmare coming to life and he had to do something. He had to.

“Calm down. Calm down Izzy, calm down. I… it’s gonna be okay.”

“How? What are were going to do?”

It was alright. It wouldn’t be the first time they lied and deceived, wouldn’t be their first betrayal. They had to do what needed to be done, to survive, to keep going.

“Don’t worry. I… I have a plan.”

It was alright. Everything would be alright.

.

There was a reason why Alec made a very good soldier. He knew how to shut down his emotions when he needed to. He could be detached, hard. He could do what he had to do.

There had been no hesitation or remorse, not an ounce of doubt, when he’d knifed the guard who had his eyes and hunger set on Izzy. He had done what he had to do. They had fled the manor that very night and he’d killed again on the way, and did feel bad for them, because those men had families of their own, and they were just doing their job, but it hadn’t stopped him. He did what needed to be done. In the militia it was whatever he was asked to. Outside in the word, it was whatever kept his siblings safe.

He didn’t feel anything when he went to Port Alicante with a few crewmembers to make their deals the next day. He didn’t show anything, didn’t let himself feel regrets or remorse, as he lead them to a tavern Izzy and him had agreed on, nor when he slipped out of the group just in time to escape the militia, tipped on the presence of pirates there. He was perfectly calm even as he sped his way back to New Port, to inform Magnus and the crew that the others had been taken and imprisoned. Then he had nothing more to do – it was quickly decided that they wouldn’t let them  rot back there, and he volunteered to be part of the rescue mission, looking appropriately guilty for getting away when the others didn’t. Alec and Izzy had said nothing to Jace, he was a terrible liar, and he wouldn’t have agreed to it.

Especially because they had covered their track by having Izzy getting caught with the rest of the group. But Alec was calm. He was calm as he marched back to Port Alicante during the night with the knowledge that two of his three siblings were in jail facing the gallows.

They broke into the prison and raised hell, a bit. Alec killed a few more guards than necessary – the one he thought had a flash of recognition in their eyes when they saw his face. He broke away from the group to go find his little brother, and Max didn’t have the time to say a single word before Alec hurried him out and hid his escape in the confusion of their retreat. They didn’t exchange a word. Alec silenced Max anytime he tried to talk, until he delivered him back to Aline. They exchanged a nod, and then he was back with the pirates. He felt nothing, when he heard Max call back for him, the tears in his eyes and the cracks in his voice, as he turned his back to his baby brother who he hadn’t seen or heard from for almost two years.

Everything was fine. Everything was perfectly fine. They were all safe. Alec was calm, even when he saw Raphael’s burning look, even when it became clear that the quartermaster knew there had been fool play. He still traveled back to New Port with them, boarded the ship. They had sailed away before the militia reached the town, and before they gave up the chase, he was chained in the ship’s hold. But it was fine.

They were okay, and everything was fine.

.

Magnus Bane had dealt with betrayal before.

It had been one of the very first lessons he had learned in life. People you love will hurt you. Trust is just waiting to be betrayed. Only count on yourself.

First lesson to be learned, and first one to be forgotten. And he’d relearned it so many times too.

Magnus was staring at Allan – Alec, apparently – and, really, every time it hurt the same.

“Isaac is gonna pull through,” he informed the man. He didn’t know it would bring him such relief, but then again what did he know? Maybe they were close. Isaac had been the only one seriously hurt during the rescue mission. Maybe Alec felt guilty.

Raphael was standing behind him, silent and judging. It was a testimony of how far he’d come and how much respect he had for Magnus, that he hadn’t slit Alec’s throat open the second he had been free from the militia’s cell. Instead he’d brought him back on the ship, brought him back to Magnus so he could judge him himself. They knew each other well.

Alec hadn’t said a thing. Not when the men had put handcuffs on him, not when Raphael had explained to them both that there was no way Alec’s convenient absence was a coincidence, how he’d seen the wanted sign in the prison, with Alec’s face and name on him, how he wasn’t who he claimed he was. Alec hadn’t denied anything. He hadn’t said a single word. Turned out he was a runaway pure blood heir. Son of the local nobles. Magnus didn’t know why he’d decided to try his hand on piracy, and he didn’t care. Alec had sold his men – Magnus couldn’t figure out why, either. It had to be money or favors, but he had changed his mind and decided to have them rescued. This didn’t made much sense.

Ha, well, it didn’t matter.

“There is quite a price on your head,” Magnus commented after a long silence. Alec stiffened but said nothing, again, and suddenly he was done with this. It was just another story to tell, another misadventure. He didn’t want to deal with it anymore.

“We’ll deliver you to them. You’ll go back to your terrible life of riches and abundance and we’ll get paid for our troubles. Goodbye, Alec.”

The name sounded foreign to his tongue but it was the only word that made the boy raise his head. For a moment all Magnus saw was guilt, and shame and anguish, and he thought that the man was going to break his silence, to tell him that none of it was true, that it was a terrible mistake and that they could go back to where they were, forget the whole thing.

But then it was gone. Determination set back in and Alec was a stranger again. Magnus turned his back to him and left the hold. He felt like sleeping for a thousand years.

.

When Izzy woke up, she immediately wished she hadn’t.

Her head throbbed like she had taken a hammer to it – and come to think of it, she probably had. She recognized the captain’s cabin and spared a thought of gratitude for the crewmembers who had obviously dragged her out of the prison instead of letting her die their when she’d been struck down.

She’d go back to that later though, there were more pressing matters at hand. She had to know if Max was okay, if he’d made it out of there. She looked around for Alec to ask him, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“You’ve come back to your senses.”

Raphael was sitting on a wooden stool next to the bed. He was washing blood soaked bandages and instruments in a bowl filled with water while in the background she could discern Magnus sitting at his working table, pouring over maps and letters. No sign of any of her brothers though.

“What… what happened?”

“You took quite a nasty hit to the head, on your way out of town. You’re lucky the militia had the stupid reflex to use their gun as a hammer instead of what it’s actually built for.”

“How are the others?”

Clary entered the cabin at that moment, seemingly to deliver some papers, but the way she was staring at Izzy made that a flimsy excuse. She was the one to answer. “Everyone is accounted for, you took the worse hit. Catarina patched you up and all the guys. All is fine.”

She looked sincere, but Izzy caught a look between Raphael and Magnus that didn’t bode well at all.

“How about… huh, I saw Allan get separated from the group, I think. Is he okay?”

She hoped her concern was casual enough. Both men frowned, angry, but not toward her. Clary seemed confused.

“Well I saw him coming back but…”

“He’s none of your concern anymore,” Raphael cut in, a displeased frown to his lips. “You can forget about him.”

“What? Why, What happened? Where is he?”

“Why do you care? You shouldn’t trouble yourself with him. He’s the reason why you ended up in jail in the first place.”

Izzy froze, panic rising. This was a disaster.

“What?”

“He set us up. He’s been lying to us. He’s just the runaway son of some nobleman, there was a reward for his capture. I don’t know what he expected to achieve by sending us to prison, but I know he did. As to why he helped us escape in the end, I don’t even want to know. Remorse, maybe. It doesn’t matter now either way.”

“What do you mean? Did you…”

She couldn’t say the word, couldn’t ask. She wondered if she could simply ignore it, never know. She could go back to sleep, close her eyes and ignore it all. Alec would be there when she woke up. He always was.

“Killing him would have been a waste seeing how well we got paid for his capture.”

This wasn’t happening. It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t how it was supposed to go down. After all this time and all they’ve done, it couldn’t end this way.

She cast a desperate look at Magnus. He was pretending not to listen but she could see the tense line of his shoulders, how his fists were tightly closed, his face scrunched up in pent up anger.

“No. No it’s… it can’t be.”

“Don’t worry about him. Poor guy will go back to his boring life of good-for-nothing noble. He’s lucky enough we spared him, but since he did help us escape in the end…”

“No, no, you can’t, he’s…”

She still felt dizzy, and if she didn’t pull herself together she was going to throw up, and that wouldn’t get anything done.

“Where is Jimmy?”

They looked thrown off by the sudden change of subject. She didn’t have time for this. She tried to get up, to set herself back into motion, but just sitting up on the bed sent her head spinning. She persevered though. She had to find her brothers.

“I need to see him, I need to…”

“Isaac, calm down, you’re in no condition to get up,” Clary pleaded, fighting Izzy to have her lie back down.

“I need to see him,” she repeated stubbornly. Clary looked scared, helpless, but Izzy didn’t have the energy or will to be sorry about it.

“I’ll go find him,” Raphael said eventually, his frown even deeper as he exited the cabin. Magnus had given up on minding his own business and was now staring at her curiously. She was too busy trying to catch her breath and willing her migraine away to care much.

“Iz! What is it, what happened?”

Jace rushed toward the bed and sat down next to her, his hand coming to cradle her face as she relaxed minutely. She wasn’t alone. Things could still be salvaged.

“Alec’s been arrested. He’s in Port-Alicante.”

“What?”

That seemed to be the word of the day.

“Max had been arrested Jay, they were going to execute him… We had to get him out. I told Alec we should ask for help but… he’s back there. Max I don’t even know but Alec…”

The others were growing more confused and more resentful by the second, but it was too late to care about that now. If Alec was on land that’s where they would go to, and if something happened to him…

Izzy didn’t finish that thought.

“What the hell is going on here?” Clary exclaimed, frustrated. Izzy and Jace stared at each other for a long time, silently deciding on their next move. There was fire in Jace’s eyes, a determination that had never failed them even when he disagreed with everything they otherwise agreed on.

“We are going back to Port-Alicante.”

“Why? What is going on? Isaac!”

“My name’s not Isaac.”

Raphael and Magnus didn’t look surprised, but they had been there when Catarina had healed her wounds, probably. It took Clary only a short moment – she had been suspicious too.

“That’s your brother,” she said with a flash of understanding.

“Both of them. And we’re not runaways,” she added to Magnus’s intention. “We fled from the gallows. They’re going to hang him.”

.

For Jace there were few things worse than a cell.

He’d suffered from hunger, from grief and despair, had been beaten and close to death, but still this was the worst. A prison, a cage.

Izzy’s head was resting on his shoulder. She was trying hard to stay awake, but she was not recovered enough yet and she kept dozing off and waking up in a jolt, confused and panicked.

They had to get out of here, and not only because Jace was going to start trying to break the bars with his head very soon. They had to get out of here and rescue Alec. Alec couldn’t die. He couldn’t.

He was interrupted in is dark musing by Magnus coming down to the hold. Izzy sat up, determined despite the fact that she looked like a corpse and had to feel like one too.

“I told him…” she drawled, “I told him we should tell you… that if we told you the truth you’d help us… but he didn’t want to risk it..”

“So he risked the life of half a dozen men instead, including yours.”

She huffed out a sad laugh. “Alec is the one who decides. Ultimately, the choices are his. He couldn’t have got our brother out on his own.”

“Cause breaking out a group with a group of people is easier than breaking out one guy all by himself.”

“Something like that.”

They had nothing to bargain with, no leverage, no argument. They were utterly at the mercy of their capricious captain, and it drove Jace insane. They were powerless.

“For what it’s worth, we’re sorry,” he said, although personally, he kind of wasn’t. “We never meant to deceive you. Well, yeah, we did, but we never meant to betray you. It was to be temporary anyway, a safe way of passage without getting tracked down.”

“Why did you stay then? Why not leave sooner?”

Jace rolled his eyes. Wasn’t it obvious? “Because Alec fell in love with you.”

Judging by Magnus’s face, it wasn’t. The man opened his mouth several time but fell short of anything to answer to that. “I would have helped, if only you’d ask,” he said instead.

“Really?”

Izzy’s doubts were founded. Proof enough, the man didn’t answer. Would he have risked his men to help Alec after discovering he was a liar and a fraud?

Would their feelings for each other have been enough?

“Your brother could have escaped on his own.”

“Max is twelve,” Jace interjected angrily. “He’s not cut out to escape prison by himself. He’s never even fought anyone.”

“They don’t put people that young in prison,” Magnus said, knowing perfectly well it was bullshit.

“Says who? The first night I ever spent in jail, I was nine.”

“Just let us go, Magnus,” Izzy cut in with a pleading tone. “We’re running out of time. Valentine has been looking for us ever since we disappeared, he won’t waste anytime sentencing Alec to death. We have to rescue him. Just let us go, you’ll never hear about us again.”

“How can I be so sure? You have a good bargaining chip in your hand. My crew’s wanted too, as am I. Who’s to say you won’t sell us out for your own freedom?”

“We won’t. We won’t, please, we just… We can’t let Alec die. All he ever did was protect us. They’ll hang him on the main square and Max will have to watch and we have to go back, we have to, please, Magnus…”

“You’ll die too. What are you going to do, you two against the marines? It’s suicide.”

“What do you care? We stick together, no matter what. We’ll get him out.”

There was no other option anyway, there was nothing else to do.

“Magnus, please. Just let us go.”

The man looked down at them, a calculating look on his face. Jace couldn’t understand what his brother saw in him, and he wondered, what did that rascal see in Alec.

“No.”

Maybe nothing, after all.

.

Alec had never pondered over his own death. He wasn’t going to start now.

But he was standing under a rope in front of an entire town of mostly hostile people, and he couldn’t help it.

He was scared. That wasn’t how he wanted to go.

Valentine was sitting at one end of the plaza, in front of the city hall. Above everyone else on his chair, with his son and most trusted men by his sides, and he was enjoying this, no doubt he was. He had taken everything from Alec and his family, and now he would take his life too, his revenge, his future. He would die in front of all those people a criminal, a good for nothing thief and murderer, with no name and no story attached to it. He had managed nothing, nothing at all.

At the very least he hoped Izzy and Jace were far, far away from here.

He hadn’t spotted Max, nor Aline or Helen, and for that he was thankful. They would all be safe right? His siblings, his family, they would be safe. Sad, for a while, but they could go on with their life, could be free. They didn’t have to come back here. It had been his plan, but it was foolish. He should have taken Max with him in the first place and fled far away from this place. What did he care about honor and revenge? It wouldn’t bring back anything that they had lost.

They could have stayed on the ship.

It was probably the happiest he had ever been. It was no place for a child but Max wasn’t a child anymore. At least not in the eyes of those who had dragged him to prison, beaten enough that he couldn’t put up much of a fight.

They could have stayed on the ship. He could have stayed by Magnus’s side.

Fuck, Alec didn’t want to die.

He was so damn angry. If only he could get free, he would kill them all. Burn this town to the ground. Then he could die, but not before, not before.

If he died with so much hatred in his heart, he’d come back as a vengeful ghost for sure.

“Do you have any last words?”

He had about a thousand but all he could see was Valentine and the same sweet, satisfied smile he’d had the day he had sentenced his parents to death.

“I’ll kill you.”

It only made the man’s smile widen, but it was the only thing Alec could think about at the moment. The executioner reached out for the handle.

There was a very loud noise.

.

“Don’t look at me, Max. I’m covered in blood.”

Of course it did nothing but earn him an exasperated look from the boy, who knelt by his sides to tend to his wounds. Alec was too tired to argue much more – he felt emptied of all energy and dangerously close to passing out. His injuries were superficial, but the blood loss and the weariness were not. He was leaning against the railing, lulled by the gentle sway of the ship. The day was bright, the sea calm. It seemed almost alien after the night they’d had.

“That _is_ a lot of blood.”

“Don’t worry, it’s mostly not mine.”

He was trying to look detached, but he was cataloguing every moves and reactions from his younger brother, trying to decipher his feelings, what he was thinking. He was too scared of the answers to ask properly. He was sure Max had seen him.

He’d seen the pirates storm out the place and raise hell on the gathered crowd, cut Alec free of his bounds and thrust a sword into his hands. From that point they had beaten a hasty retreat, but Alec hadn’t followed, not immediately. He’d spotted Izzy with Max under her arm and they had seen him to.

They had seen him make a beeline toward the nobles gathered at the end of the plaza. Valentine, confused, enraged, who was trying to exit the place. There was no way Alec was letting him go. Not this time.

The blood on his clothes wasn’t his.

“Don’t ever leave me behind again, Alec.”

He dared to cross the boy’s gaze for the first time since they’d boarded the ship and escaped a burning Port Alicante. Max looked fierce and hard, but gentle too, happy, relieved.

“There’s no need now,” Alec answered quietly, his throat tight around his voice. Max nodded, satisfied, and got up to go check on Aline and Helen, deep in conversation with Tessa in the back of the ship.

He was replaced by Magnus, who sat down next to him, close but not close enough to touch. Alec had to fight not to reach out. He was in no position to do so. The silence stretched between them, despite all the things Alec wanted to say. “Thank you,” he said eventually. It seemed like the best place to start.

“Don’t mention it.”

“I am sorry. For everything. And I’m beyond grateful for what you did for us, you… you didn’t have to. I wasn’t expecting you to. I should be dead by now.”

“Yeah. You should.”

“We won’t stay in your way. You can drop us off in the next port, and we’ll disappear from your sight, I promise.”

He wasn’t sure Magnus didn’t intended to just throw them off board. When he’d understood there was some sort of intervention going on, he had cursed Izzy and Jace for throwing their lives away like that, for attempting a stupid rescue mission. It didn’t occur to him that they might have the pirates behind them – it didn’t make sense then and it still didn’t now.

“Do you think we came to get your ass out of there just to let you go?”

“I don’t know why you came Magnus. I don’t understand it.”

He had a sense that Magnus was about to say or do something meaningful, that maybe he was getting closer, his beautiful face all serious and determined. Alec could hardly breathe.

And then he received an empty bucket square on the face.

“What the…”

“What do you think, idiot? We don’t leave crewmembers behind,” Raphael deadpanned, calm and collected and not looking at all like had had just thrown a bucket at someone’s head.

Alec looked around him. They were all there, the men and the women he'd lived with for more than a year. Going about their business like there was nothing out of place, like all was fine and nothing hurt.

"We like your sister too much, so we'll have to put up with you too," Raphael added, dead serious. Somewhere behind him came Izzy’s clear laugh.

Magnus took his hand.

“Welcome aboard, Alec.”

It was a beautiful day.

**Author's Note:**

> Tadaaaam. I have to confess I LOVE betrayals. Something I don't love at all are action scenes haha, that's why I always workin in ellips or, my specialites, someone remembering/retelling it after the facts. 
> 
> Anyway I hope you enjoyed this! Let me know, also I'm on tumblr [here](http://inrainbowz.tumblr.com).


End file.
